Offense breaks out in drubbing of Reds
Diamondbacks score season-high 12 runs
You could see the weight leaving the players’ shoulders in the Diamondbacks dugout as shortstop Nick Ahmed watched his three-run home run leave Chase Field.
For the Diamondbacks, whose offensive struggles have turned them into a punchline, Monday’s 12-5 win over the Cincinnati Reds represented what could be a major step out of the rut.
In fact, for all their shortcomings at the plate, the Diamondbacks achieved a feat offensively that they had not all season long — scoring in double digits.
By comparison, the club scored a total of 18 runs on its recent nine-game road trip.
The Diamondbacks scored a seasonhigh 12 runs and hit three home runs on Monday. They had scored 10 runs and hit a total of three home runs in their past five games.
“Scoring 12 runs every day (would be) great,” Ahmed said after the game. “But it’s not going to happen every day. … We just kept adding on and adding on, and that’s what good teams do. We didn’t settle and we continued to battle and score runs all throughout the game.”
Behind Ahmed’s second-inning blast into the left field seats, the Diamondbacks scored four runs in a single frame for the first time since their fiverun third inning on April 26 in Philadelphia — a span of 28 games and 32 days.
Second baseman Daniel Descalso led off the inning with a triple. After right fielder Chris Owings reached on a one-out walk, left fielder Socrates Brito grounded up the middle -- but the ball struck the mound and took an awkward hop on Reds shortstop Jose Peraza, who was charged with an error on what could have been an inning-ending, double-play ball.
The next batter, Ahmed, clubbed a three-run shot. This time, it was the Diamondbacks taking advantage of the moment.
“We caught a break, and I want to make a point because we haven’t gotten a lot of breaks,” manager Torey Lovullo said of the botched double-play ball. “I’m not up here whining about it, but teams have been playing their best against us and we’ve suffered because we’ve made a mistake (in recent games).
“But today, we took advantage of a key mistake that was made on defense and capitalized with a big three-run home run. That’s what this team does well.”
Catcher John Ryan Murphy added a solo home run in the fourth inning, his sixth of the season in just his 13th start. Ahmed added his fourth RBI later in the inning. Reds right-hander Homer Bailey, who entered the game having yielded 10 hits in three consecutive starts, allowed six earned runs over four innings.
It was just the third time this month that the Diamondbacks scored at least five times in a game this season. They had scored nine runs in two prior games in 2018, the most recent of which came on April 14 in Los Angeles.
“We’ve been looking for a big threerun home run or a gapper with men in scoring position,” Lovullo said. “We just seem to have some problems with men in scoring position and getting that big hit.
“When it finally does happen, it’s a relief. I think the entire dugout took a breath and said, ‘That feels good, that’s how it happens, and that’s how it happened in the past.’”
With the Diamondbacks leading, 6-1, after four innings, the Reds mounted a comeback on right-hander Matt Koch. Eugenio Suarez (1 RBI) and Adam Duvall (3 RBIs) hit doubles in the inning, but Ahmed showed up with a clutch defensive play.
After Duvall cleared the bases with a two-out double, Bailey hit a ground ball that ricocheted off the glove of a diving Jake Lamb at third base. With the ball idling in the infield, Duvall turned third and headed toward home, but Ahmed grabbed the loose ball and erased the would-be tying run at the plate.
“Nick was right in the middle of a lot of important plays today,” Lovullo said. “I mentioned the three-run home run, but he (instinctively) picks up the ball and really doesn’t have a chance to set his feet but throws a strike home and preserves the one-run lead.
“I just think Nick is able to make those plays; he has a tremendous game clock,” Lovullo said. “It doesn’t surprise me. We get spoiled by some of the plays he makes, and he’s one of the best.”
Koch allowed five runs on 11 hits on five innings of work. He threw 82 pitches and did not record a strikeout.
Lamb and first baseman Paul Goldschmidt notched singles in the bottom of the inning, and Owings drove them in with a three-run homer of his own to make it a 9-5 game as play moved to the sixth.
Goldschmidt and pinch-hitter Ketel Marte added two more runs in the sixth inning, and Lamb drew a bases-loaded walk in the eighth to bring the Diamondbacks’ grand total to 12. The Arizona bullpen did not allow a run in relief of Koch.